Schreiner, Olive

Schreiner, Olive shrī´nər [key], pseud. Ralph Iron, 1855–1920, South African author and feminist, b. Wittebergen Reserve, Cape Colony. After several years as a governess, she went to England in 1881, taking with her the manuscript of her famous novel, The Story of an African Farm (1883). The novel, which has been likened to Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights, is an intense story of two children living in the African veldt it was controversial because of its feminist and anti-Christian sentiments. Her later works included Dreams (1921), a collection of allegories Women and Labour (1911) and a significant novel, unfinished, From Man to Man (1926). Her letters were edited (1924) by her husband, S. C. Cronwright-Schreiner, who also wrote her biography (1923, repr. 1973).